BREAKING VIDEO: Sheriff Scott Israel Spoke Arabic At Muslim Gathering, Said He Keeps Kids Out Of Jail, Puts God Before Community

A video has surfaced of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel attending a meeting of Muslims, where both Israel and one of his deputies spoke in Arabic. The deputy said that Israel pledged to keep young people out of jail and to put “God first, your family second and the community third.”

• Israel speaks in Arabic to a 2015 meeting of Muslims.
• Israel credits his deputy Nezar Hamze as a likeminded individual who is on the same mission as Israel. Israel compares himself and Hamze to lions on a mission.
• Both Israel and Namze boast that they keep young people out of jail, rather than put them in.
• Israel says that he puts troubled young people “in a program” where they get help with narcotics and other issues.
• “I want you to put God first, your family second, and the community third,” Namze quoted Israel as telling the sheriff’s office team.
• Israel says that “There’s only one perfect person: God. And you’re not it and I’m not it. We make mistakes. Police make mistakes every day, and I understand that, and that’s why we have to partner with our community.”
• Israel: “Why is Nezar here? Because as a man who studies Islam, and as a Muslim, he’s going to find out information that we can’t, he’s going to bring information back to the community and take information from the community and back to us.”

“I want to testify before you brothers and sisters because it’s important for you to hear from us,” the deputy Nezar Hamze said before speaking Arabic in the July 2015 Darul Uhloom meeting.

“He said something that resonates with me, and I want to share it with you, so you know the type of individual and what he does,” the deputy said Hamze said.

“He said, regarding our youth, our children, because we all focus on our children very much, he said he’s going to measure his success by how many kids he keeps out of jail and not by how many kids he puts in,” Hamze said.

“Brothers and sisters, this is an indicator to me that this man is a straight man,” Hamze said, pledging that Israel told him and the rest of the team, “I want you to put God first, your family second, and the community third.”

“Brothers and sisters, this is the reality. This is the man who is our sheriff.”

Israel also spoke in Arabic before pivoting to English.

“We have to give our children second chances and third chances,” Israel said. “That’s why we have a civil citation program, so when children commit misdemeanors, not violent, instead of going to jail we put them in a program so they get help with narcotics, with anger management, with alcohol, mental health issues…”

“The idea is to keep them out of jail from ever going back,” Israel said.

“Is Nezar my friend? Yes, he’s my friend,” Israel said, referring to his Muslim deputy Nezar Hamze. Israel said to the crowd, “Let me tell you why he’s here.”

“I have a poster, and the poster has ten lions, and these lions are walking across the plains of Africa, and you can tell by the looks of these lions, these aren’t lions that are out for a stroll. These are lions out for a deer,” Israel said. “And you can see these are ten hungry lions. And as they walk across the plains in this photo, the top of the photo, the top of the picture says, ‘When On A Mission.’ And the bottom says, ‘Surround Yourself With Likeminded Individuals.'”